


every city needs a distance

by LailaLiquorice



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Day At The Beach, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, anna finds everything hilarious, anne is chaos child and drags kat along with her, aragon would like some peace and quiet, cathy just wants to read without getting covered in sand, jane is such a mum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 09:21:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19809364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LailaLiquorice/pseuds/LailaLiquorice
Summary: The queens decide to go for a day at the beach when the summer heatwave gets too much. Shenanigans ensue (obviously).





	every city needs a distance

Considering they had all grown up during a time where there was no electricity to make the summers any cooler, summers in modern times were, literally and metaphorically, a breeze. Not only that but they weren’t stuck in sweaty corsets and stuffy dresses anymore, so even though the heatwave currently scorching London was nothing that they were used to from the 16th Century it was certainly a lot easier to deal with than it would have been back then.

Even with that in mind, on the hottest days of summer the prospect of lying around the house all day just became too much. All six of them were in the living room with a rotating fan set up in the middle of the floor and all the windows open, and everyone sprawled limply over the sofas in various positions as they tried to endure the heat.

“I swear I’m actually dying,” Anne broke the silence with a whisper, lying upside down on one of the sofas with sweat dripping from her forehead.

An irritated “Don’t be overdramatic,” came from Aragon sat across the room in her customary armchair. She didn’t bother opening her eyes as she spoke to Anne, a cool flannel obscuring her gaze as she tried to alleviate the headache that the muggy weather had caused.

“Why the fuck is this bitch ass house so fucking hot,” Anna muttered under her breath.

“Language.”

Anna raised an eyebrow towards Jane at her rebuke, but it turned into a smirk when Jane reached out to cover Kat’s ears from where she was sat next to her

They all fell into silence again after that, too hot to continue any proper conversation, until Cathy suddenly sat up from where she’d been lying with her head on Anne’s stomach and her legs across Anna’s lap. The others watched her curiously as they waited for the expected announcement, and as predicted she turned to them all and said “Let’s go to the beach.”

“-beach, let’s go get away,” mumbled Anne and Kat in unison.

Jane glanced confusedly at the two cousins before looking back at Kat. “I think that’s a brilliant idea. I’m sure we can find a seaside nearby in the car, and I imagine some fresh air will do you good Catherine.”

Aragon hummed quietly from beneath her flannel at the comment aimed towards her. Jane gave a content nod at the fact that they now had a plan for how to spend the day, but as she stood up to start getting organised she glanced back towards Anne and Kat who were still singing quietly and asked “What on earth are the two of you on about?!”

Anna huffed with laughter as Jane left the room, reaching out to give Anne a sloppy high five and making a mental note to play the song in question during the car ride. Jane’s inability to grasp pop culture was something that the two of them had always found hilarious.

After half an hour and much nagging to get everyone out the door, they were all piled into Jane’s minivan and heading out towards where they were hoping there was a beach. Anna was riding in the passenger seat so was in charge of both navigation and the radio, much to Anne’s dismay from where she and Kat were in the two middle seats. But once they’d picked a destination Anna played a Nicki Minaj playlist on her phone to show Jane what song they’d been singing earlier, which ended any hopes of Cathy and Aragon getting some peace and quiet in the back of the car.

Once they were at the beach, they had barely got out the car before Jane shouted “Suncream time!” while brandishing a giant bottle she’d pulled out of her equally giant bag.

“But I’m not exactly about to get sunburned- oh- oh, ok,” Anna’s protests were given up on as Jane grabbed her arms without a word and squirted a long line of suncream down each arm. Admitting defeat, she held out her hands for Jane to squirt suncream into so she could cover her chest and face.

Cathy, Aragon, and Kat all complied as well, knowing there was no point in trying to getting drowned in suncream, but Anne was sprinting for the beach the minute she’d grabbed her backpack out of the boot of the car. “Anne, come back! You’re going to get burned!” Jane yelled after her.

“I don’t need suncream I’m gonna fight the sun!”

Figuring that she could get Anne when she inevitably fell asleep sunbathing later, Jane just chuckled to herself and let her go.

While Jane and Aragon set up their little camp with their popup tend and folding chairs, Anne was immediately stripping into her bikini and racing into the sea. Kat followed her much more nervously, looking at Anna when she paused next to Kat and gave her a curious glance. “I’ve never been in the sea before,” she said with an anxious smile.

“Come on then babes, I’ll give you a hand,” Anna said, grinning at Kat until her smile lost its nervousness. She gripped Anna’s hand tightly as they waded into the sea, starting to relax as she got used to the gentle waves lapping at her legs and the way the water pushed her around.

Jane watched them with a fond smile from where she was sat on her deck chair a little way up the beach, with Aragon on the chair next to her and Cathy lying on her front with her book on a towel beside them. “It’s nice to see Kat getting out of her comfort zone,” she commented aloud, and both Cathy and Aragon hummed in agreement.

“So who’s going to pull Anne out of the water when she ends up drowning herself accidentally?” Aragon asked with a smirk.

Glancing briefly at how Anne was throwing herself into the water and splashing around on her back, Jane looked back at Aragon as she said “Anything that happens over there is Anna’s responsibility, not mine.”

That was forgotten seconds later when a terrified shriek was heard from Kat, and the three of them were on their feet in an instant and running towards the water. But their worry only lasted a second until they saw Kat frantically trying to climb up onto Anna’s back while Anna practically howled with laughter.

“What happened?” Jane asked, looking between the two of them.

Kat didn’t answer, eyes wide with terror as she wrapped her legs around Anna’s middle and her arms round her neck. Anna grabbed her hands reassuringly as she struggled to control her laughter, eventually managing to choke out “A bit of seaweed touched her leg!”

There was silence as everyone looked at Kat. “I thought it was a jellyfish!” she whined defensively, pouting as Anna kept laughing at her.

“Let’s get you back to dry land,” said Anna, wading out of the water and depositing Kat back on her feet next to Jane. Immediately she latched onto Jane’s waist instead, and Jane chuckled sympathetically as she put her arm around Kat’s shoulders.

Loud splashing made them all glance over to see Anne wading towards them, lifting her knees high with every step in a comical attempt to cover more ground faster. “That looked fun, lemme have a go,” she said, barely waiting for Anna to nod before she was jumping up onto her back. Once she was stable up there she shouted out a battle cry as Anna waded back out into the sea, shouting out that they were the ‘Queens of the sea’.

“I think they need taking down a peg, hmm?” said Aragon out of the blue, glancing towards Cathy with a knowing smirk.

Cathy returned her smile with a firm nod after a second of confusion, and after getting onto Aragon’s back much more carefully they were off in a slow persuit of Anne and Anna.

Jane was the only one still wearing her sun dress rather than a swimsuit and had no intention of going into the sea so was happy to stay on the shore with Kat, both of them watching and laughing as Anne and Cathy started trying to shove each other down while Anna and Aragon splashed each other. “Bets on who will win?” she asked Kat.

“Anne and Anna. Definitely.”

“I’m with you there love,” Jane nodded.

They went back to sit down as the water fight continued, and after a good long while it was ended with Cathy being knocked off Aragon’s back with an undignified screech as she fell into the sea. Aragon ended up in the water as well as Anne pushed her down too in her triumph, so they both looked very wet and sorry for themselves as they all trailed up the beach.

Anna pulled the cool bag out of the tent as Jane helped Aragon and Cathy dry their hair, tossing them each a can of Pimms and lemonade with a shout of “Here you go losers!”

“This seems like the most undignified way of drinking alcohol ever invented,” Aragon said disapprovingly as Cathy cracked open her can eagerly.

Anne laughed as she waved her hand for Anna to throw her one. “Well we weren’t exactly gonna bring wine glasses to the beach!” she retorted playfully.

Aragon gave her an unimpressed look but opened her can and took a sip nonetheless.

With them all cooled off after their dip in the sea, the afternoon was spent sunbathing underneath the cloudless sky. Jane insisted on a suncream topup before they settled down and even managed to get a thin smear of it over Anne’s face despite her protests. Anna opted to drag over a sun lounger rather than settle for one of the camping chairs, and then brought over a second when Jane gave it a longing look, while Aragon was content in her chair and Cathy laid back down on her towel so she could continue reading.

In typical overexcited Anne and Kat style, the two of them were unable to sit still for long before they were running around again. Cathy’s soft snores indicating she’d fallen asleep resulted in Anne and Kat starting to very carefully cover her with sand, both of them having to pause regularly and cover their mouths so that they wouldn’t risk waking her up with their laughter. Jane just tutted at the pair but let them be, secretly looking forward to seeing Cathy’s reaction when she eventually woke up. Aragon being in a chair rather than on a towel meant that they couldn’t use the same ploy when she fell asleep a while later, so Anne dragged Kat to sit down out of Jane’s hearing range so that they could plot something new.

Jane was half-asleep herself with her eyes closed when their plan was eventually put into action. The peaceful quiet was disturbed by a shout from Aragon and a scrabbling noise as she jumped in her chair and started kicking her feet. The question of what was going on when Jane looked down to see Anne and Kat crouched by Aragon’s feet and a crab soaring through the air as it was dislodged from her foot.

“What did you do that for?” she shouted, primarily at Anne since she was the one laughing the hardest.

“You were asleep! We had to!” Anne burst out between laughs. She looked like Christmas had come early and even Kat wore a pleased little smile on her face.

A confused noise made everyone glance round to see Cathy had just woken up and was looking around groggily at all the noise. “What’s going… what’s tha… why’s there sand everywhere?”

Everyone started to laugh at the confusion on Cathy’s face, and even Aragon cracked a smile as she forgot about the crab that had pinched her toe.

“Well I think we’re done with the pranking people now,” Jane said firmly as she got up to help Cathy brush the sand off of her legs. “You two can come and sunbathe with us for a while.”

Anne made a noise of protest at Jane but didn’t complain as she laid her towel out next to Cathy’s. “Ah well, the crab was worth getting pinched,” she said, showing her hands which were covered with red marks from her battle with the crab.

Kat sitting down in the chair next to Anna was the cue for everyone to fall silent again, all of them enjoying the peaceful sunshine in each other’s company. Jane definitely almost fell asleep again whereas Aragon could only risk dozing off again with the assurance that Anne was sprawled out on her front beside Cathy and wasn’t about to stick another crab under her chair. The only sound that could be heard was the soothing sound of the sea in the distance; they were all either enjoying the peace or fast asleep, and they all could have very willingly stayed there all day together.

When Aragon felt something touching her foot again she immediately recoiled with her knees pulled up to her chest. “Boleyn if that’s you again I swear to God,” she said without opening her eyes.

“Hmm? ‘m not doing anything, just sat here on m’towel,” Anne mumbled, clearly half asleep.

Aragon opened her eyes then, curious to what was under her feet if it wasn’t Anne playing another trick. What she saw made her jump to her feet with a shout – a shout and a splash. While they’d all been dozing they hadn’t noticed the tide creeping in on them and it was now lapping at their chairs and soaking the edge of their towels.

Jane’s instinct to scrabble backwards up her sun lounger ended up in tilting backwards and Jane sliding off to land in an awkward heap on the floor. Anne managed to tread on Cathy’s back in her haste to get off her damp towel and then tripped over her foot to faceplant the sand right next to Jane. Kat squawked as she jumped onto Anna’s lap, followed by a resounding crack as one of the flimsy legs snapped and they ended up back on the ground.

When their initial panic faded and they looked around at the chaos they’d caused for themselves, they all couldn’t help but laugh at each other. “Well,” said Jane, picking herself up off the floor with a slight wince as she clicked her neck, “home time, I think?”

Aragon nodded. “Home time, definitely.”

With the wet towels in a plastic bag and a dry towel around Cathy to stop her from getting sand all over the car, it was back in the minivan and on the road home. Discussions about what was for dinner ended in a stop at their favourite Chinese takeaway when they all decided they couldn’t be bothered to make food with anything they had in the house, and eventually they were all sat back in the living room with food laid out on the coffee table and a favourite film on the TV.

To no-one’s surprise Anne was complaining of sunburn and sitting very gingerly on the sofa to avoid her scarlet shoulders touching the back of the chair, but somehow despite how persistent she’d been with the suncream it was Jane who had also come away from the beach a little redder than she’d been that morning. There were definite pink burns on her nose and cheeks which outlined her sunglasses from where she’d been lying on her back and her collarbones were looking a little red too, while the outline of Anne’s bikini top was burned into her back except from a few white patches where Jane had succeeded in smudging suncream in patches here and there.

“Can’t believe it’s you of all people who got burned,” Aragon tutted as she gently rubbed aloe vera gel on Jane’s cheeks.

Jane chuckled, trying not to wince too much with how gentle she was being. “I must have forgotten about myself while I was making sure everyone else was protected. And thanks, love.”

“Nah, I saw her putting suncream on her face. She’s just that pasty white that she burns even with it!” shouted Anna from across the room, laughing loudly.

Anne’s laughter turned into an agonised groan as Aragon turned on her with the aloe vera, but she was surprisingly gentle as she worked the gel into the worst of her burns. “So tell me again how fighting the sun went for you?” Aragon asked with a smirk she didn’t bother to try and conceal.

Letting out an exaggerated sigh, Anne muttered “Oh fine, so maybe I can’t fight the sun. I lost this time.”

“Well at least she didn’t try to fight the sea too like a Roman Emperor did once,” Cathy commented tiredly, still sat wrapped in her towel like a blanket since there was still sand clinging to her legs.

She was about to continue by telling the story when she looked towards Anne and saw wide-eyed eagerness on her face, but another sharp “Ow!” as Aragon touched her back had them all laughing at their disastrous friend.

**Author's Note:**

> A prompt from a lovely anon who asked for some fluff with the queens at the beach!! After all the angst I’ve written lately (and the angst I provided by singing howard at today’s sixcord…) I had to write this one first because I wanted to do something nice and light-hearted. Cleves’ first line makes me laugh so hard and I can honestly imagine lexi saying this in my head so I had to run with it, as does Jane’s confusion at Anne and Kat singing ‘starships’ bc our girl Jane doesn’t understand pop culture references (it’s a mum thing), and Aragon + the crab is inspired by Jaye’J’s insta story where it happened.
> 
> I'm lailaliquorice on tumblr :)


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